Art Stone Memorials has updated a memorial to a local soldier which will recognised in an annual Remembrance weekend fundraising event this Saturday.
Corporal Russell Aston was among six people shot dead on June 24 2003 at a police station in Majar al-Kabir in southern Iraq when he was serving as a member of the Royal Military Police in a newly formed regiment 16th Air Assault.
His family, who live in Coton-in-the-Elms, erected a memorial to him in the village but had not included the emblem of the Grenadier Guards with whom their son had previously served.
Wishing to rectify this omission, the family contacted Art Stone Memorials who agreed to project manage the specialist job of creating and installing the emblem.
This Saturday (November 12), the updated memorial will be seen for the first time by local friends and family who come together every year raising money and awareness for smaller military support charities.
Several soldiers will start off at the arboretum the National Memorial Arboretum,and will stop off at Coton-in-the Elms to lay a wreath at Corporal Aston’s memorial before moving onto the Burton War Memorial in Lichfield Street.
Art Stone Memorials showroom manager Amy Lamb said: “When we were contacted by Corporal Aston’s family, we were only too happy to help.
“The project required specialist machinery and skills to ensure the emblem creation and installation was 100% accurate and matched the original slate memorial.
“We are delighted with the feedback from the family, and I look forward to representing Art Stone Memorials at this poignant event on Saturday.”
Aged 30, Corporal Russell Aston lived in Newhall and was married with one daughter. He joined the Army in 1993 as a company physical training instructor and was posted to the Royal Military Police 156 Provost Company in March 2001 after service with the Grenadier Guards. Military parachute trained, he had also served in Macedonia and Northern Ireland and on operations in Kenya.